Baby Boom

So it is all happening here on Skokholm with baby chicks everywhere. We have shell ducklings, herring gull chicks, oystercatcher chicks, buzzard chicks, short eared owl chicks and puffin chicks! It is a baby boom. In a few days time we will be ringing the owl and buzzards chicks! Very exciting!

The pufflings haven't been seen yet, but you know they have hatched as the puffins are flying straight into their burrows with sand eels to feed their young. It has got very busy with puffins flying around everywhere 'wheeling' (circling around before landing).

Short eared owl chicks and a short eared owl parent. Shell duck and ducklings and a oystercatcher chick.

We have been treated to a rare sighting here on the island with a blue throat. It was found in one of the well nets and that meant it could be rung and everyone was able to take a good look at him. He was a very flashy smart looking bird.

Blue Throat

In terms of work we have been busy with shearwaters continuing to check burrows for occupation and hoping to catch the partner bird from our last search. This was met with success and we managed to get over half the partners and so we won't have to disturb their burrow again. However, we will have to go back to the others as they were either empty burrows, so still have the potential to be occupied or we found the same bird as last time or a new bird and so need their partner. This information provides us with bird survival rates and productivity.

We have also been playing male shearwater calls down burrows in plots. This is so we can do an island estimation of burrow occupancy. Only males will respond and responses are noted.

Finally I went out one evening with the visiting ringers at midnight to ring shearwaters. Under their watchful eyes and guidance I am now able to ring D rings successfully without help! (Most of the time). We walked along the transect up to the lighthouse and back with clear starry skies and the Milky Way on show, with lightning flashing closer and closer. We finished at 2am and before the rain started, ready for bed!

We also spent a day searching for lesser black backed gull nests to record productivity (how many eggs) and population size (how many pairs). This was fine by walking through gull colonies in straight lines with a cane each. The cane was used to point to the nest that you were counting so that the person either side of you wouldn't count it as well. We walked up and back down the plots to cover the whole area so that no nests were missed.

We were very lucky and managed to avoid being pooed all over which is normal as the gulls poo as a deterrent. Instead we ended the day with tans.